Imprint is a known lithographic technique for producing electronic devices (such as semiconductor IC devices and liquid-crystal display devices). In an imprint method, a light-curable composition on a workpiece substrate, such as a wafer or a glass plate, and a fine-patterned mold are brought into contact with each other, and the light-curable composition is cured while in contact with the mold so that the pattern will be transferred to the workpiece substrate.
Imprint apparatus usually aligns a mold and a workpiece substrate by die-by-die alignment. Die-by-die alignment is a mode of alignment in which alignment marks, provided in the individual shot regions defined on the workpiece substrate, are optically detected and used to correct the positional displacement of the mold and the workpiece substrate with respect to each other.
PTL 1 describes a technology in which imprinting that includes transferring a shape on a mold to a resist is carried out in an atmosphere of a gas that condenses at the imprint temperature and pressure so that accurate imprint can be done even under atmospheric pressure.